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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44996
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

As you've described it, **successful writing, _for you_, has three phases**. The first is a discovery phase, where you just write. The second is a clarification phase, where you discover your theme, and the third is a completion phase, where you continue to discover your story, but in the light of the theme. The problem is the second phase doesn't always happen, which derails the third phase.

I would suggest, instead of viewing these projects as successes and failures, alive and dead, **view all your writing as an exploratory process towards finding your next great theme**. Write on something as long as it is speaking to you, and when it quits speaking, put it aside --for a while! But frequently review your old material, and search it for common threads, things that really speak to you, weightier concepts and so forth. Eventually you'll find that new living theme, and start to be able to pull the old threads together.

I'd also suggest keeping a dream journal, doing meditations, doodling, or doing other things to **keep in touch with your subconscious**. Our conscious mind often censors or edits our themes, judging them as trivial, or disgusting, or childish, or antisocial, or otherwise problematic. But our subconscious will persist in promoting what it wants to talk about, if only you allow it space to communicate.

Original score: 2